how to screenshot on pc, I can’t go a day without taking a screenshot of something on my computer. Whether it’s for work, some dumb snippet of a video I want to share with my friends or the incredible results of a rare Overwatch session gone well, there’s always something.
Windows and macOS give you plenty of ways to take quick screenshots of anything you want, from quick keyboard shortcuts to built-in tools for capturing, annotating and saving screenshots and screen recordings. There are also plenty of third-party apps you can use to level up your screenshot game if you need more firepower than what your operating system can provide.
How to take screenshots on your Windows PC or Mac
If you want to grab an image of your entire screen—including all windows, toolbars, docks and any part of your desktop that’s peaking through—the easiest option is to use keyboard shortcuts.
Look for the Print Screen key on your keyboard, which might be labeled PrtScn or something similar.
To capture the entire screen (everything you see on the screen, including all open windows), press the PrtScn button. This screenshot will be placed on your clipboard for you to paste wherever you want. You can also press Windows Key + Print Screen to save the screenshot to your [User]\Pictures\Screenshots folder.
To capture the entire screen, press Cmd + Shift + 3 at the same time. When you do, you’ll hear a click, and the screenshot thumbnail will appear in the lower right corner of your screen
Screenshots are automatically saved as PNG files to your desktop. If you want to save to the clipboard instead, press and hold Control+Cmd+Shift+3
How to capture part of your screen
If you want to grab a single window, a quick paragraph of text, or a photo, you can screenshot a selection of your screen using various keyboard shortcuts or easy-to-use tools that are already baked into your operating system.
Capturing your screen on Windows
To capture just the active or foremost window, press Alt + PrtScn . (If you’re on a laptop, you might have to also tap Fn at the same time.) The image will get copied to your clipboard for you to paste wherever you want.
To capture something that normally disappears when you press the Alt key—like a drop-down menu—press Ctrl + PrtScn instead.
If you want to select a portion of your screen to grab, hit Windows Key+Shift+S . In Windows 10, this will open the “snipping bar,” which we’ll explain below.
Windows 10 has a screen capture app called Snip & Sketch . With Snip & Sketch, you can define areas of the screen to capture (an irregular shape, a rectangle that you draw, a selected window or the entire screen), annotate the screen capture and share your screenshot via email.
If you don’t use the Windows Key+Shift+S keyboard command to launch a miniature version of Snip & Sketch, you can launch the full app by clicking Start and typing “Snip & Sketch” into search. Select New to start a new snip and select the capture type (rectangular, free form, windowed or full-screen). The image goes to your clipboard, but you’ll also see a pop-up prompt to annotate or share right from the Snip & Sketch tool.
